escape.

"They were next heard of in Adair county, near Columbia. In passing
through the country, they met a small boy, the son of Colonel
Trabue, with a pillow-case of meal or flour, an article they
probably needed. This boy, it is supposed they robbed and then
murdered, as he was never afterward heard of. Many years afterward
human bones answering the size of Colonel Trabue's son at the time
of his disappearance, were found in a sink hole near the place
where he was said to have been murdered.

"The Harpes still shaped their course toward the mouth of Green
river, marking their path by murders and robberies of the most
horrible and brutal character. The district of country through
which they passed was at that time very thinly settled, and from
this reason, their outrages went unpunished. They seemed inspired
with the deadliest hatred against the whole human race, and such
was their implacable misanthropy, that they were known to kill
where there was no temptation to rob. One of their victims was a
little girl, found at some distance from her home, whose tender age
and helplessness would have been protection against any but
incarnate fiends. The last dreadful act of barbarity, which led to
their punishment and expulsion from the country, exceeded in
atrocity all the others.

"Assuming the guise of Methodist preachers, they obtained lodgings
one night at a solitary house on the road. Mr. Stagall, the master
of the house, was absent, but they found his wife and children, and
a stranger, who, like themselves, had stopped for the night. Here
they conversed and made inquiries about the two noted Harpes who
were represented as prowling about the country. When they retired
to rest, they contrived to secure an axe, which they carried with
them into their chamber. In the dead of night, they crept softly
down stairs, and assassinated the whole family, together with the
stranger, in their sleep, and then setting fire to the house, made
their escape. When Stagall returned, he found no wife to welcome
him; no home to receive him. Distracted with grief and rage, he
turned his horse's head from the smoldering ruins, and repaired to
the house of Captain John Leeper. Leeper was one of the most
powerful men in his day, and fearless as powerful. Collecting f